We explore the question of whether machines can infer information about our psychological traits or mental states by observing samples of our behaviour gathered from our online activities. Ongoing technical advances across a range of research communities indicate that machines are now able to access this information, but the extent to which this is possible and the consequent implications have not been well explored. We begin by highlighting the urgency of asking this question, and then explore its conceptual underpinnings, in (...) order to help emphasise the relevant issues. To answer the question, we review a large number of empirical studies, in which samples of behaviour are used to automatically infer a range of psychological constructs, including affect and emotions, aptitudes and skills, attitudes and orientations (e.g. values and sexual orientation), personality, and disorders and conditions (e.g. depression and addiction). We also present a general perspective that can bring these disparate studies together and allow us to think clearly about their philosophical and ethical implications, such as issues related to consent, privacy, and the use of persuasive technologies for controlling human behaviour. (shrink)

Here we consider interpersonal experience in schizophrenia, melancholia, and mania. Our goal is to improve understanding of similarities and differences in how other people can be experienced in these disorders, through a review of first-person accounts and case examples and of contemporary and classic literature on the phenomenology of these disorders. We adopt a tripartite/dialectical structure: first we explore main differences as traditionally described; next we consider how the disorders may resemble each other; finally we discuss more subtle but perhaps (...) foundational ways in which the phenomenology of these disorders may nonetheless be differentiated. These involve disruptions of common sense and conventionality, abnormalities of empathy, distinct forms of paranoia and the sense of personal centrality, and altered perceptions of intentionality, deadness, and artificiality. We end by considering some neurocognitive research relevant to these abnormal forms of subjectivity, including work on theory of mind, experience of human movement, and perception of faces. (shrink)

Gunas personality framework is an inclusive and comprehensive personality framework. Every human being is composed of three gunas or fundamental elements —sattva (intelligence-stuff), rajas (energy-stuff), and tamas (mass-stuff). Some of the prior measures of gunas do not fully capture the content of this variable, and some are not suitable for contemporary use. We conceptualize gunas in terms of an individual’s attitude towards social issues and have developed a new measure of gunas. We have demonstrated the concurrent and predictive validity of (...) the measure through a study of two samples of 60 executives and 356 MBA students. We show that sattva predicts performance, rajas predicts effort, and tamas is positively related to dispositional negativity. We show how the new gunas scale is a useful tool in contemporary times. (shrink)

Participants with posttraumatic stress disorder and participants with a trauma but without PTSD wrote narratives of their trauma and, for comparison, of the most-important and the happiest events that occurred within a year of their trauma. They then rated these three events on coherence. Based on participants’ self-ratings and on naïve-observer scorings of the participants’ narratives, memories of traumas were not more incoherent than the comparison memories in participants in general or in participants with PTSD. This study comprehensively assesses narrative (...) coherence using a full two by two design. The results are counter to most prevalent theoretical views of memory for trauma. (shrink)

Using a simulated two-party negotiation, we examined how trustworthiness and power balance affected deception. In order to trigger deception, we used an issue that had no value for one of the two parties. We found that high cognitive trust increased deception whereas high affective trust decreased deception. Negotiators who expressed anxiety also used more deception whereas those who expressed optimism also used less deception. The nature of the negotiating relationship (mutuality and level of dependence) interacted with trust and negotiators’ affect (...) to influence levels of deception. Deception was most likely to occur when negotiators reported low trust or expressed negative emotions in the context of nonmutual or low dependence relationships. In these relationships, emotions that signaled certainty were associated with misrepresentation whereas emotions that signaled uncertainty were associated with concealment of information. Negotiators who expressed positive emotions in the context of a nonmutual or high dependence relationship also used less deception. Our results are consistent with a fair trade model in which negotiator increases deception when contextual and interpersonal cues heighten concerns about exploitation and decrease deception when these cues attenuate concerns about exploitation. (shrink)

Most previous research on self-disclosure (SD) focused on its perceived retrospective aspects using self-report questionnaires. Few studies investigated actual SD as reflected in interpersonal interaction. We propose a comprehensive approach that combines new objective and dynamic measures of SD that evaluate situated SD with the traditional measures that evaluate stable SD properties. As SD is essentially verbal, we build on linguistic parameters for assessing actual SD, including acoustic features such as intonation and fluency, and verbal features such as the particular (...) choice of words. Critically, the new measures highlight SD here and now and may reveal transient situational factors that affect it, such as the dynamics of interpersonal interaction. Based on these measures, we propose a 3-dimensional evaluation that can portray different profiles of SD and offer a better prediction of SD behavior in different situations. The theoretical and clinical implications of the proposed approach are discussed. (shrink)

In the present study, clinically depressed and non-depressed adults described the events that happened to them each day for two weeks, and these descriptions were content analys...

This empirical study explores aspects of how companies that are positively recognized by their workforce as “Best Companies to Work For” convey the underlying principles of their “trustworthy” culture. The study examines the normative ethical frameworks and affective language utilized in the ethics statements. Although multiple studies have considered normative ethical frameworks in individual ethical decision making, few have considered normative ethical frameworks in organization ethics statements. In addition, this study expands the analysis to include the ethic of care. Of (...) the “Best Companies to Work for” in this study, 93 had accessible online ethics statements. Findings indicated 70 % of the ethics statements utilized combinations of three types of normative ethics studied, while 30 % used a single framework. In statements with combined frameworks, the deontological framework had the highest frequency, while the ethic of care was present in 33 % of statements and the teleological framework had the lowest frequency. In ethics statements with a singular framework, the framework rankings were consistent with findings for combined frameworks. Using the Dictionary of Affect in Language, there were statistically significant differences on pleasantness between statements that mentioned ethic of care and those that did not. This study sheds light on how these trustworthy companies communicate by publishing their ethics statements and by using a multidimensional approach in their ethics statements that has greater pleasantness when an ethic of care is utilized. (shrink)

Despite strong evidence that worry is a verbal process, studies examining linguistic features in individuals with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) are lacking. The aim of the present study is to investigate language use in individuals with GAD and controls based on GAD and worry theoretical models. More specifically, the degree to which linguistic elements of the avoidance and intolerance of uncertainty worry models can predict diagnostic status was analysed. Participants were 19 women diagnosed with GAD and 22 control women and (...) their children. After participating in a diagnostic semi-structured interview, dyads engaged in a free-play interaction where mothers' language sample was collected. Overall, the findings provided evidence for distinctive linguistic features of individuals with GAD. That is, after controlling for the effect of demographic variables, present tense, future tense, prepositions and number of questions correctly classified those with GAD and controls such that a considerable amount of the variance in diagnostic status was explained uniquely by language use. Linguistic confirmation of worry models is discussed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The ubiquity of social media usage has led to exciting new technologies such as machine learning. Machine learning is poised to change many fields of health, including psychology. The wealth of information provided by each social media user in combination with machine-learning technologies may pave the way for automated psychological assessment and diagnosis. Assessment of individuals’ social media profiles using machine-learning technologies for diagnosis and screening confers many benefits ; however, the implementation of these technologies will pose unique challenges (...) to the professional ethics of psychology. Namely, psychologists must understand the impact of these assessment technologies on privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, recordkeeping, bases for assessments, and diversity and justice. This paper offers a brief review of the current applications of machine-learning technologies in psychology and public health, provides an overview of potential implementations in clinical settings, and introduces ethical considerations for professional psychologists. This paper presents considerations which may aid in the extension of the current Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct to address these important technological advancements in the field of clinical psychology. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 9, September 2022.

Paulina Sliwa (2015) argues that knowing why p is necessary and sufficient for understanding why p. She tries to rebut recent attacks against the necessity and sufficiency claims, and explains the gradability of understanding why in terms of knowledge. I argue that her attempts do not succeed, but I indicate more promising ways to defend reductionism about understanding why throughout the discussion.